White House moves to claw back US$810 million in congressionally approved funding
USA: The White House announced plans on Friday evening to rescind US$810 million in congressionally appropriated funding through a pocket rescission. This drew immediate condemnation from a senior Republican senator who called it an unconstitutional violation of Congress’s budgetary authority, according to CNBC.
The move targets US$567 million appropriated for Health and Human Services (HHS) programmes for refugees, asylees, and other non-citizens, US$28 million for HHS research, and additional cuts to Department of Education special programmes for immigrant students, among other programmes.
What a pocket rescission is
A pocket rescission is a controversial budget manoeuvre in which a president submits a request to Congress to block funding so close to the end of the fiscal year that the funds expire before Congress receives the full 45-day consideration period required under the law.
The result is that funding is effectively killed without Congress having a genuine opportunity to vote on it.
The White House cited the Impoundment Control Act as the legal basis for the administration’s authority. However, the Government Accountability Office has stated the ICA does not permit withholding proposed rescissions through expiration if Congress has not approved them.
Congressional pushback
The announcement drew swift criticism from Senator Susan Collins of Maine, the Republican who chairs the Senate Appropriations Committee, making her rebuke particularly significant given her party affiliation.
“This is the most recent attempt by this Office of Management and Budget to undermine Congress’s constitutional power of the purse,” Collins wrote on X. “The independent Government Accountability Office has concluded that pocket rescissions are unlawful and not permitted by the Impoundment Control Act. Any effort to rescind appropriated funds without congressional approval is a clear violation of the law.”
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A pattern of rescissions
The Friday announcement is not the first time the Trump administration has used this mechanism. A year ago, the administration blocked US$4.9 billion in congressionally approved foreign aid through a pocket rescission.
That was the first time in approximately 50 years that a president had attempted to use that authority. That move was also criticised as unlawful by the GAO.
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